Linguine Aglio e Basilico – green pasta with garlic

Linguine Aglio e Basilico by Pasta Morelli, green tagliatelle with garlic and basil from Tuscany

Long, flat durum wheat linguine from Antico Pastificio Morelli, flavored with natural garlic and basil concentrate and colored with dehydrated spinach. Bronze drawn, slowly dried at 50 °C and with fresh wheat germ in the dough. 250 g in a cardboard box, cooking time 8 to 9 minutes. Not an egg noodle, but a pure durum wheat pasta with a green touch.

The Linguine Aglio e Basilico by Pasta Morelli are long, flat ribbon pasta made from Tuscan durum wheat semolina, refined with natural garlic and basil concentrates. Their characteristic green hue comes from finely dehydrated spinach in the dough, not from basil or eggs – this pasta is a pure durum wheat variety, also suitable for people avoiding eggs. Additionally, Morelli has been reincorporating fresh wheat germ into every batch of dough since 1860, which gives the pasta a bready, cereal scent when cooked.

Green noodles with an herbal-garlic scent

When you open the box, an intense aroma immediately greets you: warm garlic with a fresh, herbaceous basil note in the background. The linguine display a strong, natural green – the color comes from the dehydrated spinach in the dough. Sometimes lighter spots are visible where the spinach is unevenly distributed, and precisely this irregularity is a sign of quality in artisanal drying. The surface remains rough and matte, like all of Morelli's bronze-drawn linguine.

When cooking, the small sensation that Morelli is famous for emerges: The pasta water turns slightly greenish – this time even more intensely due to the added spinach content – and a complex scent rises: first the garlic, then the basil, with the grainy wheat germ note underneath. On the palate, garlic dominates first with a pleasant, round, not sharp character. Then the basil opens up, and finally the wheat germ asserts its dark, bready depth. Three distinct layers that peel away cleanly.

What do linguine with garlic and basil go well with?

The short answer: The pasta already brings so much flavor that it almost doesn't need sauce. Our tip for the simplest version: toss cooked linguine with a spoon of cooking water, a splash of cold-pressed olive oil, and shaved Pecorino in a pan. Nothing more is needed, and many won't want anything else afterwards.

Classic accompaniments that pair well with the three basic aromas: a red tomato sugo with onions and thyme, a Pesto alla Genovese (yes, this doubles the basil note, but works surprisingly well), a lemon cream sauce with white fish, shrimp in olive oil with chili, or a grilled vegetable mix with zucchini, bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes. Particularly good with Mediterranean grilled meats like lamb skewers or grilled Mediterranean fish.

For cooking, bring 2.5 liters of water per 250 g of pasta to a rolling boil, salt with a tablespoon of sea salt, and add the linguine. Let simmer for 8 to 9 minutes, stirring once. Save half a glass of the cooking water before draining – this will perfectly bind the sauce later.

Morelli's Wheat Germ Secret from Tuscany

Wheat germ is the heart of the grain, rich in vitamin E, vitamin D, and plant proteins. In industrial pasta production, it is removed during milling because it shortens the shelf life of the flour. Morelli takes the opposite approach: the freshly sieved germ is reincorporated into the dough immediately after milling. The family's motto is "Siamo fatti di altra pasta," loosely translated as "We are made of different stuff."

Antico Pastificio Morelli was founded in 1860 in San Romano (Pisa province) and is now run by the fifth generation, siblings Lucia, Antonio, and Marco Morelli. The production facility is located in Montopoli V/A, 30 kilometers from Pisa.

Three steps define the process: The dough is bronze-drawn, spread on traditional racks, and dried for 36 hours at a maximum of 50 °C. The rough bronze surface later binds any sauce better, and the slow drying preserves the flavors of the wheat and the nutrients of the germ.

The other flavored linguine from our Pasta Morelli collection also share the same durum wheat semolina base and the same wheat germ content: the Linguine al Limone with lemon and black pepper and the Linguine Peperoncino with red chili. In addition to the Linguine Aglio e Basilico, three variants are offered for three moods: herbal-warm, lemony-fresh, spicy-hot.